Alabama

Proposed bill would change tenure law in Alabama

The proposed revised tenure bill before Alabama lawmakers brought testimony Wednesday to lawmakers from teachers who said they fear cronyism and politics will determine their jobs while school board members and administrators told lawmakers the current system is broken. '(The Birmingham News/Bernard Troncale)

MONTGOMERY -- Alabama legislators began work Wednesday on an overhaul of state tenure law aimed at making it quicker to fire a teacher or school employee.

A bill introduced in the House and Senate would end the practice of an independent arbitrator hearing dismissal appeals. The bill also would allow a teacher to be fired for a pervasive and consistent record of inadequate student achievement.

Teachers lined up to oppose the bill during a public hearing Wednesday, saying that, without an independent person to look over the shoulders of school boards, they would be vulnerable to being fired because of cronyism or school politics. But school superintendents and school board members told legislators that Alabama's tenure system is so broken they've had trouble firing employees with drug or other convictions.

"It is my view as an attorney this bill will bring back politics and personal decisions in the Alabama school system," said Fred Fohrell, a lawyer representing the Alabama Education Association. Fohrell said the legislation would abolish decades-old checks and balances in the dismissal process.

Anita Gibson, AEA president and an elementary school teacher, said teachers in the course of their jobs may make powerful parents angry and need the protection of an independent arbitrator.

"How will we stop the bully that comes from a prominent family when it could possibly destroy our careers? How do we fail the quarterback who never shows up for class when we could possibly be fired for it?" Gibson asked.

Now, a teacher or school employee facing dismissal has a hearing before a school board and can appeal its findings to an independent arbitrator, who could order the employee reinstated. The bill before Alabama lawmakers would eliminate the arbitration process. Instead, the employee would have to file an appeal in circuit court.

Other teachers said the bill would make teachers hesitant to speak up to their supervisors and would return schools to the days when school boards served as both judges and juries.

But supporters of the bill said it still would spell out that teachers past their probationary periods could be fired only for cause, including immorality and neglect of duty.

Sally Howell, executive director of the Alabama Association of School Boards, said the current dismissal system is difficult, lengthy and expensive.

"When we can't fire employees who show up to work drunk .¤.¤. we need to return accountability to the local level and we need to put students first," Howell said. She said arbitrators have ruled against school boards and ordered rehab for employees who went to work intoxicated.

Employees collect a paycheck as they appeal to an arbitrator, and some have remained on the payroll for 200 days or more despite egregious behavior, superintendents told legislators.

Larry DiChiara, superintendent of the Phenix City schools, said he has had employees who have admitted sexual improprieties with students and one who was arrested for making meth in her home. The school system had to pay their salaries while they appealed to an arbitrator, he said.

"During that period of time I had to pay thousands and thousands of dollars, not to mention paying the people who took their place," DiChiara said.

DiChiara said the employees told him they needed money and appealed their dismissals to keep collecting a paycheck.

Randy McKinney, vice president of the Alabama Board of Education, said that, while everyone has had a teacher who has made a difference in their lives, they likely also encountered one that shouldn't have been in the classroom.

Republicans sponsoring the legislation called it "the Students First Act" because they said it made students the priority. Gibson said the title was an insult to teachers.

Some teachers who work with disadvantaged students told legislators they were concerned about tying student performance to job security.

Porsha Reed, a 10th-grade English teacher, said many of her students come to her reading on a fifth-grade level. She said she works with students from homes where education is not valued.

Howell said she thought the type of student a teacher worked with would be considered and the proposals do not mention test scores.

However, she said, "Performance matters. You wouldn't go to an attorney who always loses cases."